Agencies Partnering for Safe, Improved Thanksgiving Travel

Agencies Partnering for Safe, Improved Thanksgiving Travel

11/21/2016-HARRISBURG

With increased traffic expected for the upcoming Thanksgiving travel
period,
the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and Pennsylvania
State
Police (PSP) today outlined measures they will take and tools available to
drivers to make holiday travel as safe and smooth as possible.

Thanksgiving travelers are encouraged to visit the "Historic Holiday
Traffic"
page at www.511PA.com, which allows users to see how traffic speeds on the
Wednesday before and Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2014 and 2015 compare to
traffic conditions during a typical, non-holiday week. Users can choose
their
region and view an hour-by-hour, color-coded visual of traffic speeds to
help
them decide the best times to travel during the holiday. 511PA also offers
real-time, traffic speed information for roughly 2,900 highway miles of
roadways throughout PA.

"I encourage all motorists to use 511PA, not only for their holiday
travels,
but also throughout the winter season," PennDOT Secretary Leslie S.
Richards
said. "From traffic speeds and cameras to plow tracking, the site and
mobile
applications are great resources to help make travel decisions."

PennDOT traffic management staff have analyzed this holiday data and
identified
locations and timeframes where congestion typically increases dramatically
during the holiday and will take steps to try to alleviate congestion and
improve safety. The department will also partner with police for increased,

strategic enforcement of speed and impaired driving laws. Travel data was
also
shared with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for distribution
to
9-1-1 centers so staff are aware of and can plan for peak travel times,
when
call volume could increase.

"We're always looking for new ways to use our resources to improve our
operations and the public's mobility," Richards said. "These efforts are
more
examples of how we're striving to embody the governor's Government That
Works
agenda every day."

In the Harrisburg region, PennDOT's State Farm Safety Patrol will have two
additional tow trucks along the Capital Beltway and parts of Interstate 81.

Staff also identified consistent, increased congestion on the Sunday after
the
holiday near I-81 southbound at the I-78 split in Lebanon County. To
attempt to
ease this congestion, the department will:

• Use highway advisory radio messages and electronic message boards to
encourage travelers to reroute onto U.S. 22 westbound, which typically has
excess capacity;
• Use a traffic signals expert in its regional traffic management center to

manage U.S. 22's newly installed adaptive signal system to most effectively

manage the rerouted traffic; and
• Partner with PSP on concentrated traffic enforcement near this area and
to
actively clear disabled vehicles from shoulders.

In the Philadelphia region, staff identified I-95 in Delaware County and
I-76
(Schuylkill Expressway) as target areas and will:

• Have a PSP trooper stationed in the regional traffic management center
from
Thursday through Sunday for faster communications to field personnel for
quick
incident and shoulder clearance; and
• Increase the hours that PennDOT's State Farm Safety Patrol will be on
duty.

In the central region, congestion was identified at the I-80 Exit 161
(Bellefonte) in Centre County on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. PennDOT
will:

• Station staff to manage traffic at the off-exit intersection with Route
26;
• Use electronic message signs to reroute traffic to Exit 173 (Lamar) to
use
Route 64 to I-99 southbound if necessary;
• Partner with PSP on seat-belt and speed enforcement near the congested
area;
and
• Alert motorists of traffic conditions with highway advisory radio,
electronic
message signs and the 511PA service.

In the southwest region, construction-project lane restrictions will be
removed
and traffic enforcement will be increased on the I-70 corridor, along with
the
addition of electronic message signs to inform drivers of their travel
speeds.

To further increase traffic-data availability for traffic management staff,

PennDOT has created a portal through which staff can receive prioritized
reports from Waze, a real-time crowdsourced navigation app through which
drivers share road conditions. As a member of the Waze Connected Citizens
Program, the department can receive incident or roadway concern alerts
faster
and respond more quickly if necessary.

PennDOT will also remove lane restrictions and suspend construction
projects
wherever possible through the holiday period. Motorists can see remaining
construction projects at www.511PA.com before they travel.

The public can use 511PA to check conditions on nearly 40,000 roadway miles
in
Pennsylvania. The service is free and available 24 hours a day, and
provides
traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and
access
to more than 770 traffic cameras. 511PA is also available through a
smartphone
application for iPhone and Android devices. Information can also be
accessed by
calling 5-1-1 or by following regional Twitter alerts accessible on the
511PA
website.

MEDIA CONTACT: Rich Kirkpatrick or Erin Waters-Trasatt, PennDOT,
717-783-8800
Ryan Tarkowski, PSP, 717-783-5556
Ruth Miller, PEMA, 717-651-2009


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